Fighting for their Serie A survival, lowly Lecce will visit Genoa on Friday evening, when the teams meet at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

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For the second straight week, Genoa fought back to secure a precious point last time out, as Maxwel Cornet's second-half strike earned them a share of the spoils in Cagliari.

Following consecutive 1-1 draws, the Grifone occupy 12th place in the Serie A standings, with no fears of a relegation fight to haunt them, nor any prospect of qualifying for Europe.

They have lost just one of their last five games as Patrick Vieira's quiet revolution continues: since the French coach took charge of a struggling side in November, they have accrued 22 points from 16 league fixtures.

Under his watch, no team have conceded fewer goals on home turf than the Rossoblu - with a tally of five only matched by Scudetto contenders Napoli - while keeping several clean sheets has kept them in the hunt for a top-half finish.

Having played eight previous Serie A home games against Lecce without losing - claiming maximum points on six occasions - Genoa will expect to prevail again and pull within five points of 10th-placed Udinese.

In fact, home or away, Lecce have won just one of the clubs' last 15 top-flight meetings - albeit they have also lost only two of the last seven, including January's goalless draw at Via del Mare.

This time, the Giallorossi are in need of points to aid their latest fight for Serie A salvation, after taking two points from their last five matches.

Following 0-0 draws with Bologna and Monza, they were beaten 1-0 by both Udinese and Fiorentina, taking a long goalless drought into last week's home clash with faltering giants AC Milan.

Lecce's top scorer Nikola Krstovic finally found his shooting boots and bagged a brace to put his team on course for an improbable success, but Milan then battled back, as Antonino Gallo's own goal and two late strikes from Christian Pulisic consigned the Salentini to defeat.

They last lost four games on the spin under former boss Luca Gotti, whose successor Marco Giampaolo now aims to avoid that fate upon his return to Stadio Ferarris, where he once managed Genoa's city rivals Sampdoria.

Placed precariously above the relegation zone, Giampaolo and co remain at real risk of dropping down to Serie B, with a number of tough fixtures lying ahead of them.

Genoa possible starting lineup:

Leali; Sabelli, De Winter, Vasquez, Martin; Badelj, Frendrup; Ekhator, Masini, Miretti; Pinamonti

Lecce possible starting lineup:

Falcone; Guilbert, Baschirotto, Jean, Gallo; Coulibaly, Berisha; Pierotti, Helgason, Morente; Krstovic